Space Junk into Pacific

Yahoo News link

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A refrigerator-sized piece of space junk fell harmlessly into the South Pacific Sunday night, according to NASA.
The junk was a tank full of ammonia coolant on the international space station that was no longer needed. Astronaut Clayton Anderson threw it overboard during a spacewalk in July 2007.
Space station program manager Mike Suffredini said Monday that the debris splashed down somewhere between Australia and New Zealand Sunday night. The tank had served as a reserve supply of spare coolant at the space station since 2001.

Now i'm not expert, and maybe there was a reason for this. But why would "throw it" back to us? I mean, don't we have enough garbage in this planet. Why couldn't he throw it back out into space.
Why would you dispose of tank full of ammonia coolant into our ocean? Doesn't sound very environmentally smart NASA.
And if it was "thrown" out, how did they know where it was heading? What if it fell toward a densely populated area of the world. I would imagine a refrigerator-sized tank full of ammonia coolant, could seriously do alot of damage if it fell into the wrong place.

Again, I'm no expert in this so please, fill me in and give me your thoughts people.


[edit on 3-11-2008 by Andre Neves]

Nasa keeps dumping junk into the pacific

And I'll keep hoping it mutates something into Cloverfield or Godzilla...

One day i'll get lucky

Originally posted by mopusvindictus
Nasa keeps dumping junk into the pacific

And I'll keep hoping it mutates something into Cloverfield or Godzilla...

One day i'll get lucky

LOL

I just don't understand though. Why are our oceans used as a garbage disposal. They're filled with animal life too. Just shows how ignorant Humans are as a race.

any chance that stuff could be good for the environment?

nasa's got too much junk in the trunk.

yeah, lets add more crap to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, that sounds like a great idea - Please read the sarcasm in my statement.




seafood, and sea life for that matter, will soon be a thing of the past. to bad were all connected in that pesky "web of life"......